My tan has faded, but my memories of a week on the Jersey Shore have not.

My longtime readers know that I've been vacationing on Long Beach Island, N.J., with my extended family for more than 40 years. I spent a week there earlier this month and am just now getting used to reality after seven days of sunning, overeating and gossiping with my cousins.

Every morning my husband and I took a bike ride (me on the fab pink coaster bike I rented), and this year I shot photos along the way of things that caught my eye, most of them related to home design and gardening.

Maybe you've noticed little black spots appearing on your home's siding, your car or other surfaces around your house. That's the unfortunate result of shotgun fungus (also called artillery fungus), which often grows on decaying wood mulch and shoots tarry spores that are almost impossible to remove.

Marketplace Events, a company that produces home shows including the Great Big Home + Garden Show and the Cleveland Home + Remodeling Expo, is conducting a national search for a Home + Garden Trendsetter of the Year. The winner will receive a three-month contract to make appearances at home shows — a prize worth $30,000.

DIY, design and home improvement bloggers are encouraged to enter. The deadline is July 21.

Shelly Gepfert, Marketplace Events’ marketing director, said the company is looking for a blogger who can present onstage in a fun, informative and professional manner, and who has creative and trendy content to share.

I spotted this invasion in progress at the McKinley Monument in Canton and instantly pitied the poor person who's going to have to deal with it.

Bindwind is a noxious weed that twines over shrubs and other plants, making it difficult to remove. It also produces an extensive root system, so it has an amazing ability to keep coming back. It's like the Rasputin of the weed world.

I've struggled with bindweed in my yard for years. I pull it whenever I see it, and it's fairly well under control now. Other gardeners put the ends of the stems into containers filled with watered-down Roundup and leave them there long enough for the plants to absorb the herbicide and take it all the way back to its roots. You can read about one gardener's experience with that method in this post on GardenWeb.

Consumer Reports is out with the results of its latest tests on laundry detergents. The bottom line: A couple of bargain brands performed quite well at about half the price of the top-rated products.

The two top scorers were Tide Ultra Stain Release and Tide HE Plus Bleach Alternative, which tied with a score of 81. Just below them were Member’s Mark Ultimate, which scored 73, and Kirkland Signature Ultra Clean, which scored 72.